If they don't read the blogs.
Many, if not most, of the presentations that are making the circuit of the conferences
that I read about deal with the wonders of blogs and wikis and other read/write
web tools. The buzz-words are digital storytelling and new literacy and (the one
I'd happily see banned) flat-world schooling. Sometimes these same presenters,
instead of lecturing, run workshops in the how-tos of various tools.
There really is a lot that can be said about all of these, much of it interesting
and even worthwhile. But there's also an awful lot that gets repeated and recycled.
The fact that the same ideas get discussed with great frequency on the blogs of
these presenters isn't criticism. The blogs are, after all, a framework in which
ideas get raised, examined and developed. Sometimes these ideas flourish and find
eloquent expression (even in conferences), while sometimes they wither and find
their way to the waste basket. This is natural, and to be expected.
But anyone reading the blogs won't find much that's new in the one-to-one presentations
they attend at conferences. The real thinking is taking place "behind the
scenes" on the blogs, while what gets to the conferences is the performance.
Go to: Another sort of tedium, or
Go to: The tedium of real time.